Commentary on the Gospel of John

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Although scholarship is divided on the details, the majority of the evidence points to this Gospel as having been written by John, brother of James, close friend and disciple of Jesus, the son of Zebedee and Salome, who hailed from Galilee, writing towards the end of his life (d. 100AD) when he was in exile in Ephesus. This gospel is perhaps the most difficult to understand, as it tells less of a narrative story about Christ’s life and teachings, but consists more of a detailed account of the metaphysics underlying his thought. Over the centuries John has come to be counted as the Patron Saint of Theologians, and to be likened to an eagle for his overview of the meaning of the Christ story. He says nothing about Jesus’ birth or parentage, and does not mention miracles per se, nor exorcisms. He rather speaks of “signs” that Christ performed, which point for us towards aspects of the Kingdom of God which we need to try to understand and penetrate. Thomas Aquinas wrote a detailed Commentary on the Gospel of John, and so did Meister Eckhart, both of which have been drawn on for this work. This Commentary utilises all the contemporary fruits of biblical scholarship but also brings to the work the author’s unique perspective of “transpersonal history” combining the insights of Hegel, Jungian psychology, Ken Wilber, Teilhard de Chardin, Jean Gebser, Sri Aurobindo and other transpersonal thinkers of the modern era.